Selfies at Auschwitz: conference examines ethics of ‘dark tourism’

So-called dark tourism is becoming increasingly popular, with sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau and memorial museums attracting millions of visitors every yearAlamy

They are places synonymous with horror and death but such is the soaring popularity of sites associated with the Holocaust, torture and totalitarianism that plans are in place for the world’s first “Nazi tourism” conference.

Historians, curators and academics from around the world will gather in Glasgow to discuss how best to attract visitors to infamous places of mass slaughter and murder.

The four-day event will also feature discussions on ethics and how to maintain dignity and sensitivity at sites that once were places of unimaginable suffering but are now visitor hotspots.

Hundreds of delegates, including representatives from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, will hear lectures on how to prevent people taking “selfies at sites of violent death” and the ethics of…